Victorians warm to new local bank

Speaking at a Bank of Melbourne dinner last night in Victoria, the lender’s chief executive Scott Tanner said the bank was pleased with current growth and was bullish about the future.

“We’ve grown significantly over the last 12 months, an achievement we’re very proud of. We have no intentions of slowing down and we’ll in fact open our 68th branch by the end of the year.”

The Bank of Melbourne replaced the St. George brand in Victoria in July last year after the NSW based bank had failed to gain a major foothold in that market.

Mr Tanner said the lender was committed to both the direct and third party distribution channels.

Present at the dinner last night were representatives from the various aggregation groups as well as many of the state’s top writing brokers.

The growth through both the direct and third party distribution channels, while pleasing was not surprising, with Mr Tanner telling The Adviser earlier this year that the lender was aiming to take “significant market share” away from its competitors.

“We want to be the bank of choice in Victoria. At the moment, Victoria is underserviced in terms of regional banks. When we opened our doors, just 13 per cent of Victorians had a relationship with a regional bank – a far cry from the national average of 22 per cent,” he said.

“We think there is a real and present opportunity to extend our reach to a greater number of Victorians and become a true alternative to the majors.”